VHeadline can exclusively reveal that diplomatic sources claim Libya's President Muammar Gaddafi aborted plans to flee to Venezuela when British MI6 intelligence agents monitoring communications out of Iran were told that Iranian officials were acting as intermediaries with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias to facilitate Gaddafi's escape from Tripoli.

Whether or not Caracas would have acceded to the Libyan leader's asylum request remains a matter of conjecture but plans had been sufficiently advanced by Sunday afternoon (local time Caracas) that the official Iranian Press/TV news agency jumped the gun to issue a News Flash at just after 10pm Central European time saying that Gaddafi had already left the country (Libya) headed either for Venezuela or Brazil.

British Foreign Minister William Hague, speaking at a Foreign Affairs conference in Brussels, Monday, had already been briefed by British security services to the extent that he said he had seen reports that Gaddafi was on his way to Venezuela although he was unable to substantiate the information at an official level.

It is understood that Gaddafi was in the final stages of his departure from Tripoli when a diplomatically embarrassed Venezuela denied his asylum request by which time he had also had second thoughts about the flight, fearing that the Americans would use the opportunity to cause an "accident" to happen to his plane en route to Caracas.